Ju\j U, 186S. ] 



.fOTJENAL OF HOBTICTTLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



39 



was pleased to find the queen at liberty receiving the ado- 

 ration of her new subjects. 



The bees in the unieomb-hive made four royal ceUa, and I 

 had for the first time an opportunity of witnessing the con- 

 duct of the senior princess and also that of the workers 

 previous to the issue of a second swarm. The queen at 

 liberty constantly attempted to reach the royal tells oon- 

 ta.ininor the imprisoned queens, and frequently got quite to 

 one of the cells, but the workers would then seize her by 

 the leg and chase her until she was several inches irom the 

 forbidden territory ; they then appeared to rather fawn upon 

 ii.nd caress her. A swarm issued forth on the eighteenth 

 day from the abstraction of the old queen. I also observed 

 that the apertiu-e in the royal cells containing the imprisoned 

 queens was not small, as I should have inferred from Dr. 

 Bevan. but the end of the cell was entirely nibbled away 

 long before the (jueen gained her liberty. 



After the departure of the swarm the mve appeared 

 nlmost depopulated, but a small knot of bees still kept vigi- 

 lant watch over the imprisoned queens, and I did not see 

 the elected one at liberty until the morning of the 7th inst., 

 twenty days after the loss of the old one. The first young 

 ■ (ueen was very dark and not at all «sibly difi'erent from an 

 EngUah queen, but I am glad to see that the one now 

 rt^nant is very well marked and a most decided Italian, 

 and may turn out a first-rate queen. — J. E. B. 



[The instance above related tallies with our own ex- 

 perience, that strange bees cannot be introduced into any 

 stock, either by transposing or by any other means, without 

 considerable danger to the queen regnant.] 



VAEIATIOJsS IX THE COLOUR OF QirEENS 

 A^"D DRONES. 

 I MUST dissent from the conclusion aitived at in the editorial 

 reply to " A Hampshike Bee-keeper." in page 20. since it 

 appeal's to me by no means certain, but, on the contrary, 

 highly improbable, that the so-called yellow-banded queen 

 possesses the slightest trace of Ligiuian blood. Had the 

 old queen met a Ligurian drone as suggested, the fact would 

 have been made evident to the mf^st superficial observer by 

 hundreds of her worker progeny displaying the pecioliar 

 orange-coloured belt which adorns the Italians, instead of its 

 being apparent only in the person of her siiccessor. The 

 truth is these variations in colour occur more often than is 

 generally supposed. I have probably handled and examined 

 more cjueen bees, both English and Italian, than any other 

 Englishman, and have several times met mth those of the 

 former species whose annuiated appearance perfectly corre- 

 sponded with the one described by " A Hampshire Bee- 

 KEEPEE," but which had not the slightest claim to affinity 

 with the Italian race ; whilst, on the other hand, I have seen 

 pure Italians that scarcely differed in outward ai>pearance 

 from the ordinaiy black queens. Kor is this variation con- 

 fined to the females : it has already been stated in these 

 columns that pure Ligurian drones are frequently very dark, 

 but I have only recently become aware that drones of the 

 ordinary species may simulate the appearance of Italians. 

 This has, however, been the cage in a recent instance in 

 which, whilst destroying the few drones which existed in a 

 second swarm of common bees that I had purchased, I was 

 astonished at finding some among them as distinctly marked 

 as any of my Ijest Ligurians. What rendered this more 

 remarkable was the faet that neither the queen-mother her- 

 self nor any of her worker oii'spring participated in the 

 slightest degree in the gay colc^urs which distinguished theh- 

 male relatives. — A Devonskibs Bee-keep5.r. 



AGE OP QFEENS — BEE SEASO:^^ IN SOUTH 

 DURHAM. 



I OBSERVE in No. 117 that "ALanabeshiee Bee-ksepek" 

 states that he had a queen for '■ seven years." Would he 

 kindly say if this is what he vfrote, or is it a misprint i- 



I am glad to say the weather in this part (South Durham) 

 since the 9th of June has been very fine and good foi- bees, 

 and shouM it continue, a few weeks more I do not think 

 there wHl be any occasion to take them to the moors. 



I think there can be no douVjt that the Ligurians are much 

 superior to the common ones. I had a swarm from one of 

 mine in a common straw hive on the 21st of June, and this 

 swarm swarmed again on the 1st July; a half-bred swarm, 

 hived into one of Tegetmeier's obsen'atory-hives, filled it 

 with comb, honey, and grub in twelve or fourteen days, and 

 I have been obliged to put two glasses on, to give them air at 

 top and bottom, and destroy the queen-cells to prevent 

 them Bivarming in twenty-one days from the day of hiving. 

 I cannot say from experience that the hybrids are equal to 

 the pure Ligurians, but they appear to be superior to the 

 common bees ; and this season I find both the hybrids and 

 Ligurians as tame as I ever found the common bees. To 

 preserve them pm-e you must keep them at a distance from 

 one another, and I have, therefore, moved my hybrids foiur 

 miles a^vay. — A. ?>'. 



APIARIAN NOTES FROM GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 



I CANNOT give a very favourable report of the bee-season 

 from this county. The spring was too dry and too cold for 

 honey-gathering. The first swarm I heard of in this neigh- 

 bourhood was on the ISth May. The second was on the 

 28th from one of my own old stocks ; but breeding has gone 

 on well with the help of occasional feeding. The honey- 

 gatheiing has been delayed until this time (the 18th June), 

 in consequence of the want of that fine electric weather 

 which often takes place the last fourteen days in May. 

 There are only now about fi-om fourteen to twenty days left 

 for honey-gathering ; but the grass is later than usual, and 

 we have no heath and little Dutch clover. In July and 

 August the bees have a bad chance, excepting in heath 

 ccamtries, and where the Dutch clover abounds in July and 

 August, and even latter in some localities. Yesterday (the 

 lyth June) and to-day, incessant rain from N.E. and North. 



As I do not admire artificial swarms, I cling to the old- 

 fashioned natural, and, as Virgil describes it, that " Divine 

 instinct " which teaches the bees to increase their number 

 in their own way, which, to my mind, is one of the most 

 wonderful, and bj' fai' the most exciting act which these 

 extraor-linary insects perform. 



Your coiTespondent from Durham seems to make a shrewd 

 guess that the cold easterly winds in May render the flowers 

 and blossoms nearly useless to the bees. In 1848 we had 

 twenty-nine days of easterly wind, and little or no honey 

 was gathered in that month. The kite districts have cer- 

 tainly a chance of faring better this summer, and I hava 

 always been of opinion that July and August will be finer 

 and (frier than in any of the three preceding seasons. 



The exhibition of bees and hives at the meeting of the 

 Bath and West of England Agricultural Show amused me 

 very much, and I was pleased to obsei-ve that Mr. Wood- 

 bury's Mves were greatly admired at the Show, and that his 

 '• live stock " made such a " buzz " in the newspapers. It 

 was very agreeable news also to hear that his Ligiiiian bees 

 had ai-rived safe, and had been so much admired in Australia. 

 The latter I consider a great feat accomplished, as it is well 

 known that in a voyage of probably more than ninety days, 

 the gi-eatest care must have been taken of those bees to 

 insure success. 



I omitted to mention that I hived a second swarm on the 

 12th, which had hung under a thick slirub aU night in the 

 rain. They were very weak, and I gave them some honey -, 

 they are now working most vigorously in one of Nutt's old- 

 fashioned boxes. 



The last two days I have had a first swarm (from one of 

 last year) swarm no less than four times ; and yesterday (the 

 17th), no less than t^vice on the same day, and each time 

 the swarm returned to the parent hive, after half-settling 

 Dwice on an artichoke plant, and twice on a young pear 

 tree ; not the same tree each time. I fear they ■wiU not 

 issue out again, as rain has set in. 



I can say, certainly, that for half a century I do no re- 

 member four consecutive seasons so bad as the past three, 

 icchuUng the i>resent, to be ranked almost as unpropitious 

 as any one of the three, so many stocks having been ruined 

 by the cold weather in the spring. 



' The twelve days' rain from the 5th to ' the 17th of 

 June caused gi-eat distress to m.any young swarms. In 

 1>ri9 (then living- at Thornbury Park), I lost thi'ee stocks 



